Chapter 8
The Final Years
Sojourner remained committed to the idea of women’s rights. She knew Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, two of the movement’s most famous leaders. Stanton and Anthony were focused on voting rights.
In order for society to change, women had to be able to vote for new laws. They needed to vote for the leaders they believed in. Without the vote, women had no voice and no power.
Black men had been given the right to vote in 1870. Even so, many Southern states found ways of preventing them from voting. But black women were even worse off. Just as for white women, it was not legal for them to vote.
Sojourner agreed with Stanton and Anthony. She went to gatherings and gave speeches about women’s rights. She said that women would be good leaders, judges, and lawmakers. Often, she was the only black woman at these gatherings. And she was one of the only movement leaders who was poor.
Most of the leaders in the women’s rights movement had money. They did not have to worry about making a living. They did not need to work at all. Because of this, they did not think about the needs of poor women. Sojourner was different. She had struggled as a black woman. And she had struggled as a poor woman.
She pointed out that men and women were not paid equally for the same work. This made it harder for women to take care of themselves and their families. Sojourner thought that was unfair. She wanted the supporters of women’s rights to focus on the issue of equal pay. Until women were paid equally, they would not be equal.
Sojourner also believed that women needed to make changes, not just talk about them. She put her beliefs into action. In 1872, she tried to vote in Battle Creek, Michigan. She was turned away. She knew she had to keep fighting. But she did not live to see women get the right to vote.
In 1878, Sojourner went on a speaking tour to thirty-six towns in Michigan. She was eighty-one years old. In that same year, she was also one of three delegates to the Woman’s Rights Convention in Rochester, New York. This convention was held on the thirtieth anniversary of the first convention in Seneca Falls.
Some progress had been made since the 1848 convention. In 1851, Amelia Jenks Bloomer started a dress-reform movement for women. Instead of stiff petticoats and uncomfortable long skirts, she urged women to wear loose pants under shorter skirts. This new costume would make it easier for them to get around. The pants were named for her: bloomers. In 1869, women began serving on juries in the Wyoming territory. But these were small steps. There was still so much more to be done.
Sojourner could no longer do it. She had spent years fighting for the rights of black people. She had spent years fighting for the rights of women. Now she was old. And tired. She made one last trip to Kansas. She wanted to speak to former slaves who were planning to go out West and farm the land given to them by the government. Then she returned to Battle Creek for good.
Sojourner Truth died on November 26, 1883. She was eighty-six years old. Her funeral was attended by a thousand people. She was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery, near her grandson Sammy. A newspaper in Battle Creek wrote, “This country has lost one of its most important personages.”
But Sojourner Truth’s bold spirit lives on. Her work and her words continue to inspire and instruct. She was one of America’s great heroes, and she will be remembered always.
